For an innovation city, Shinagawa:“Reinforcement plan of manufacturing industry infrastructure in the area around Shinagawa Osaki Station”

Shinagawa Ward has historically been a key point of Tokyo’s industry. Currently, there are many companies in manufacturing and software industries that produce high added values. The ward aims to create new industries and new businesses with Monozukuri at the center.

Shinagawa, the birthplace of the Keihin Industrial Zone

View of the area around the Osaki Station

Shinagawa Ward has history as the “birthplace of the Keihin Industrial Zone” and developed mainly in manufacturing industries such as appliances and equipment. Factories moved out of the ward or closed with urbanization, and the number of manufacturing businesses decreased to a half in the last ten years. On the other hand, the number of fabless companies that do not have manufacturing sites, IT-related industries, and venture companies increased. They are located especially in the area around the Osaki Station.
The Osaki Station is a terminal zone of trains accessing various areas in the Tokyo metropolitan such as the center and the coastal subcenter with the Yamanote Line and Rinkai Line. There are Gate City Ohsaki and Oval Court Osaki close to the station, which are communities with multiple functions. Various business supports including the Business Service Center that leads Tokyo’s Monozukuri are provided in this redevelopment area that responds to a wide variety of urban life needs of work, living, study, and leisure.

Support to create new businesses

Shinagawa Business Club

“Shinagawa Business Club” supported by Shinagawa Ward is a new kind of public industry supporting organization that is for members only. High-quality seminars and workshops are offered for creation of new businesses and open interactions among members, and they have received good reviews.

Commitment to support venture companies is also a characteristic of Shinagawa Ward. The ward has established business startup support center s in Nishi Oi, Tennouzu, and Hiromachi where office spaces are provided for planning, development, and designing departments of manufacturing businesses and software companies that indirectly support them. Many companies have grown out of this space. Creation of more companies that will lead Japan is anticipated.

Birth of SHIP (Shinagawa Industrial Platform) , a facility for industry support and interactions

SHIP, the 4th Floor: Open Lounge

There are a wide range of businesses in Shinagawa Ward including major companies, development-type small- and medium-sized businesses, foreign-owned enterprises, and information communication companies. A new base for these companies across different fields to collaborate, interact, and exchange information is about to be born.
A facility for industry support and interactions called SHIP (Shinagawa Industrial Platform) is scheduled to open in Osaki in June 2015. A ship is a symbol of Shinagawa, which is a coastal city, and carries many people onto a voyage. The facility is, thus, named as SHIP with hopes that it will lead businesses of everyone involved to a good direction. The facility itself is also shaped like a ship.

SHIP is located on the third and fourth floors of a redevelopment building. The third floor is a hall where various events such as seminars and exhibitions can be held, while the fourth floor offers a members-only open lounge where businesses of various industries can interact, office space to support venture companies, a workshop area with a 3D printer installed where prototypes can be made, and so on.

“We would like to have this facility used not only by businesses in the ward but also from various regions, regardless of their industry and/or business types and promote collaborations across different fields. We would like to see new industries and new businesses born here and companies spring out to a success in Shinagawa, in Japan, and farther in the global arena. (Mr. Yokota)”